It should come as no surprise that the latest Gallup poll shows that President Obama is carrying a 70-25 percent lead over Gov. Romney among Jewish voters. Once the undecideds break for a particular candidate, it looks like Obama will garner roughly the same percentage of Jewish votes as he did in 2008 against Sen. John McCain.

There’s a reason for this—and no, it’s not simple political affiliation. Jewish voters tend to choose Democrats because they care about Jewish values like tikkun olam, repairing the world; tzedek, justice; and rachamim, compassion. The only connection one can draw between these fundamental Jewish values and the policies proposed by Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan is that they oppose each other at virtually every turn. And no aspect of their plan better illustrates this than the Republicans’ proposals for our nation’s education system.

“I’m not going to cut education funding,” Romney promised in the first presidential debate. But that vow stands in direct contradiction to Romney’s March 20th endorsement of Ryan’s budget plan that would cut federal education budget by 20 percent. Steve Rattner, former counselor to the treasury secretary under the Obama Administration, explained in the New York Times that Romney’s own plan calls for a $2 trillion increase in defense spending, which would necessitate cuts of up to 40 percent to every other major federal program, including education.

Which specific aspect of the Romney-endorsed Ryan budget is the most antithetical to the Jewish commitment to public education? It’s hard to choose just one. Perhaps it’s the projected $5.3 trillion (yes, you read that right) reduction in overall spending, which, according to the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, is the equivalent of “33 percent less for ‘education, training, employment, and social services’ ” in the Ryan budget proposal. That would mean less money for training, less money to invest in good teachers, and less money to spend on facilities for our students. Or perhaps it’s the $2.7 billion in cuts the vice presidential candidate recommends for Title I programs that provide educational services for disadvantaged students in high-poverty school districts, risking the jobs of as many as 38,000 teachers.

Or maybe it’s the dramatic slashes—approximately $170 billion over 10 years—that the Romney-endorsed Ryan budget recommends for Pell Grants, which provide crucial aid to more than 9 million of the nation’s most financially needy students so they can pay for college. A Romney-Ryan White House could mean that over the next decade 1 million U.S. college students would not have a fair shot.

Jewish voters’ opposition to cutting $2.2 billion for educating children with disabilities—which would lead to lost jobs for 30,000 special-education teachers—is understandable. So is their opposition to a Ryan budget that could result in the removal of 191,000 at-risk pre-schoolers from Head Start, which gives educational, health, nutrition, and social-service support for families most in need.

Education experts, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, have sharply criticized the would-be vice president’s plan. At a March House Subcommittee hearing, Duncan said that “passage of the Ryan budget would propel the educational success of this country backwards for years to come.” Jewish organizations are also outraged. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism released a statement in March saying that his plan “would turn our backs on our obligation to care for all Americans.” The Jewish Council on Public Affairs also labeled cuts in the Ryan plan, including those in education, “completely unacceptable … [since] these assistance programs are the only thing preventing some families from falling into poverty and others from becoming even poorer.” As President Obama summarized conclusively in the first presidential debate, a Romney-Ryan ticket would lead to the “gutting” of our education system.

Our community has always placed a premium on education, and we understand that shortchanging our children is the opposite of what our history has taught us. That’s why we see that Jewish support for President Obama is growing as the disconnect between Republicans’ policies and Jewish values become increasingly clear. And on education, the distance between the two candidates couldn’t be greater.

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Funny the head of the largest teacher’s union talking about not having money to pay teachers. If the unions didn’t make it impossible to fire bad teachers, didn’t create situations where teachers sit in rubber rooms getting paid for doing nothing, there would be a lot more money to pay good teachers. Unions don’t support improving education, they only support the people who pay them dues, even if those people are child molesters who can’t get fired because of union rules.

Take the case of Alan Rosenfeld who makes over $100K per year doing nothing, increasing his pension by $1700 per year that he stays doing nothing. He can’t be fired, and he doesn’t do anything, he just makes his $100K salary every year (plus health benefits), adds to his pension and the kicker – he’ll get paid for over 100 unused sick days when he finally does retire.

Another case is that of Roland Pierre, who just retired recently at the age of 76, 14 years after being removed from the classroom for being accused of molesting a child. He was only raking in $97K per year when he retired.

We don’t think Randi Weingarten has any idea what Jewish values are,or even just values, when teachers are protected at all costs, even likely child molesters, costing municipalities millions of dollars in paying the teachers to do nothing, legal fees, arbitration, etc. and then complain that there’s no money to pay teachers.

, a military budget equall to that of the next 10 countries combined, secret trade agreements, the list goes on. Obama and Romney are both dedicated to continue with policies that are destroying the planet

This all sounds wonderful but what part of “we’re out of money” doesn’t the author understand. Keep in mind that we are borrowing money from China to pay for the programs the author talks about. The long term trajectory we are on is frightening for America and for Jewish values. What becomes of Jewish values in an America that is weak and broke? What becomes of Jewish values in a world where America is weak and broke?

Weingarten and his followers are the typical retarded left wing morons who, in their arguments, always ignore the concept that spending more than you have can not work and have never followed the idea of “redistribution” and its consequences to the end.

“typical retarded left wing moron?” you really see the world in such a clear black-and-white way? So long as religious extremists control the repugnant party, I’ll never vote for a Republican (the G Opposing Progress). There’s clearly more diversity of intelligent opinion in the Democratic party (I’m Independent) than you can even begin to comprehend. If you ever have children, I’ll presume that you’re the “retarded” one. There isn’t an intelligent member of the Republican party in politics today – just loud-mouthed, holier-than-though phony Christians-in-name-only who are a disgrace to humanity, let alone to America. Clearly, you’re one of them.

2, the republican/conservative party is in the class war language of the
left/liberal/democratic/socialists the party of the rich.

does being rich not infer success and a certain measure of intelligence
and education? yet, for you this is the place where all the stupid
people congress.

the party you favor is, in contrast, associated with the unskilled
working class, the entitlement chasers, the high-school drop outs and
welfare recipients, the OWS crowd and the undereducated low-info freaks.
this is where, in your opinion the intelligent can be found.

i call this a logical fallacy. (to be kind)

3, you also lack the capacity of discerning change and progress and permissiveness

2, the republican/conservative party is in the class war language of the
left/liberal/democratic/socialists the party of the rich.

does being rich not infer success and a certain measure of intelligence
and education? yet, for you this is the place where all the stupid
people congress.

the party you favor is, in contrast, associated with the unskilled
working class, the entitlement chasers, the high-school drop outs and
welfare recipients, the OWS crowd and the undereducated low-info freaks.
this is where, in your opinion the intelligent can be found.

i call this a logical fallacy. (to be kind)

3, you also lack the capacity of discerning change and progress and permissiveness

Willard would like you to believe that we only borrow money from China and that is simply not the truth! Most of the money that is borrowed comes from the UNITED STATES! Hard to believe but it is true! Look it up. At most we only borrow 8% from China. Approximately 80-90% of the borrowing we do comes from America and the balance comes from other countries and institutions around the world.

Your comment is extraneous to the salient point. Does it really matter WHERE the money is being borrowed from? We have a deficit which must be dealt with if we don’t want to undermine the fiscal health of our nation. Is it a Jewish value to create unsustainable debt and leave our kids/grandkids a giant tax bill?

Israel will always be able to take care of herself because that is what they do best.I remember during the 6 day war,America did nothing but in one night here in Houston Jews gathered and collected 1 million dollars in cash and pledges of over 6 million more and it was sent directly to Israel.America will always help Israel because of where they are to the Middle East and Oil.It is a shame that people have to vote in this country for the less of two evils

promises, promises to stay in power…the money goes to those in power and yes hardest hit are the poor and middle class…no free lunch here and that’s why the Prez says he is fighting for us while we are feeling the brunt of his policies. He picks his policy positions based on rhetoric and ability to create voter empathy, rather than data and analysis. He gets votes, we get screwed. He goes on talk shows but talks to the Prime Minister by phone only after the press and Jewish groups chastise him for ignoring Israel concerns on Iran. He tells us how he or his team would never do anything but protect our diplomats and now we find they were refused re-inforcements.
Isn’t there a passage we recently read in the Torah or Haftorah about actions speaking louder than words?

This is US Jews all over again voting for Roosevelt who closed the doors to part of my family and subsequently went up in smoke. Anti- Semite Obama will once elected, again side with the Muslims he loves so much and squeeze Israel to death as he learned for 20 years at the feet of his spiritual mentor, Wright: “Them Jews don’t let me see Obama!” I am for education, women’s right but I am also a survivor of the Shoa. Still around and reminding you that a Jewish value of primary importance was always that Jews in trouble anywhere could depend on the Jews in other states. US Jews have l0ng ago lost what it really means to be a Jew. They think that going to the country club they call Jewish centers makes them Jews. It doesn’t and they all make me sick to my stomach!

once again I agree with you 100%.
Compassionate Jews have always reached in their own pockets. Obama’s socialist version of compassion makes always other people pay. In the past European Jews have demonstrated how “smart” they are, it did not save a single Jew who ended up in the grip of the nazis. American Jews have this pathological urge to demonstrate how “good” they are, it will not save them in the next Shoa.

As I recall Congress passes laws concerning immigration and the executive carries them out. Restrictive immigration quotas were established in 1924 (based on the 1880 census) to keep certain “undesirable” groups of the USA. The entire country had a bias toward racism in general and antisemitism in particular. Read some political history, you might be surprised at how powerless Jews have been. BTW, what has my country done to you that you hate it so much.

He seems to be under the delusion that us American Jews should put our Jewishness ahead of our patriotism, AND that to do so would for some reason be to vote for the party ruled by the same region where nazism is still alive and well: the south.

Pres. Roosevelt had a lot of discretionary powers and he chose not to use them. “After all those 25,000 charming Jewish children will grow up to be 25,000 obnoxious Jewish adults.” That quote is on the record and cannot be denied.

According to PBS’s American Experience series (for whatever that’s worth), the quote is not from FDR but his cousin “Laura Delano [who] commented, ‘Twenty thousand charming children would all too soon grow into 20,000 ugly adults.'”

Reading the whole context. This was made to him and he turned down the approval of admitting the children. He cited this quote in his discussions recorded in his biographies. While the source was in fact his cousin, the documentation was from his records.

What an irony — a union leader hectoring American taxpayers about what a stinge Conservatives are for wanting to live within our means. Is national bankruptcy a Jewish value? Is empowering unions on the backs of our teachers and children a Jewish value? Is subsituting the state for the responsibilities of the parent (feeding & raising their kids) a Jewish value? Is substituting political indoctrination (women’s studies, black studies, etc.) for learning to think, a Jewish value? I think Ms Weinstein confuses Jewish values with feeling good about one’s self, on the taxpayer’s dime. That passes for Jewish values in much of Jewish America, but they are not the same.

If one wants to understand something of the problem, chart the Federal dollars going into education against the dumbing down of so many of our children. The more we spend, the worse the result.

If we listen to Randi, we have a choice. We can vote for Obama, send more kids to college, but have no jobs for them when they finish, or we can send fewer kids
to college, but have more jobs for everyone.

Ryan is Vice President, not Secretary of the Treasury. Romney likes his effort, but not
necessarily all the details of his plan. Romney will not decide the
actual budget until he gets into office.

Probably no group has done more harm to American education than the American Federation of Teachers. The decline of our edcadution system, a disaster in most big cities, has accopanied the rise of teacher unions. Techers now command generous wage, benefit and retirement packages while rejecting any responsibility for the results of their “teaching”. Randi Weingarden being against Romney is a reason to vote for him.

Phillip. One could argue that the decline in our education system has corollated to the decline in funding for education, crowded classrooms, increased poverty in urban centers, and a distinct and provable gap between rich and poor in all sectors of American society. The vast majority of teachers in teachers’ unions are incredibly talented, hard-working, highly skilled, underpaid professionals. If they worked in the private sector, they’d earn 2-3x what they get for their devotion to children and learning.

Big lie after big lie! First, spending on education has been increasing with no tangible results. Second, public school teachers are not underpaid. Not only are they well paid, but they have very generous banefit and retirement packages. They are not hard working, they have short work days, more holidays then most, winter and spring vacations during the school year and summers off. Finally, they are not professionals. Profeessionals accept responsibility for the results of their work. A better description of teachers would be bureaucrats.

I’m not lying, Phillip. Education has actually been barely keeping up with cost of living and inflation since 1990; and, the New York City school population (K-12) has grown by nearly 200,000 students. One needs more money for that. If we didn’t have so many tax cuts for the wealthy and we’d have passed health care reform 50 years ago, we’d be ahead of the curve. So there’s work to do! By the way, all three of my children have been in the public schools and they have learned from teachers, not bureaucrats. You’re just calling people names.

Calling someone a bureaucrat vs a professional is not name calling but pointing to actual difference ( by the way bureaucrat is not a pejorative term). A professional is hired to a job and is expected to carry it out. If he cannot do it, he is not paid. A bureaucrat is always an employee within a large organization who is filling a particular slot. Teachers often claim they want want to be paid like professionals (though sometimes they are paid much better) but they are never willing ti accept the responsibility associated with being a professional.

Nurses are professionals, and like teachers, they do their jobs and are not very well paid. We could not do without either of them.

Bankers, on the other hand, are overly well paid whether they do their jobs or not. They may be bureaucrats but they think of themselves as professionals. We could do without most of them, and quite a few of them should be in prison at this point. Mortgage fraud, anyone?

Obama is a much more moral person than Romney, in my opinion. That is why Jews should vote for him. In the long term he is thinking of TIkkun Olam, which includes health care. And education. And by the way, FEMA.

I am amazed at the ignorance of people relative to the salaries paid to teachers and now nurses. Nurses salaries are not bad but unlike teachers they have a 12 month job and can be fired for incopetance..
As to Obama’s morality, first he is a peoduct of one the most corrupt political machines in the country and he has run his administration in that manner. Second, I have never seen a man who can lie as well as Obama, specially when talking about Israel.

Right On!! because he has learned to lie from the BEST Liers. the Clintons. oh, you know the one who went from; ” the greatest fairy tale ever told”, to the best story ever told ounce his wife turned over her electorial votes on floor of the democratic convention.in exchange for her current post!

To compare 3 million government paid teachers (2009 census) with several hundred, in your opinion, overpaid bankers who are not paid by the government shows your cognitive deficiency. That is why it must have been easy to brain-wash you into believing that Obama is a “moral” person. By mortgage fraud do you refer to all those people who lied about their income and bought houses they can not afford?

Nurses are professionals, and like teachers, they do their jobs and are not very well paid. We could not do without either of them.

Bankers, on the other hand, are overly well paid whether they do their jobs or not. They may be bureaucrats but they think of themselves as professionals. We could do without most of them, and quite a few of them should be in prison at this point. Mortgage fraud, anyone?

Obama is a much more moral person than Romney, in my opinion. That is why Jews should vote for him. In the long term he is thinking of TIkkun Olam, which includes health care. And education. And by the way, FEMA.

We spend much too much money on education. Left always think it’s money.

ever since the creation of Department education. by Jimmy Carter . Education of our children has gotten worse there is only one country in the world that spends more on education then United States. I believe that Switzerland.we surely are not getting what we are paying for

So to criticize teachers you have to be a teacher. Wrong! We are hiring teachers to do a job (same for doctors, lawyers, repairmen etc.). Either they do the job or we find someone else. If we can find someone better or cheaper (that’s the way it works for most of us) we should hire them. Teachers are one of the most pampered groups in our society.

In the Chicago area where I live teacher average salaries are in the high seventy thousands with generous benefit and pension packages plus tenure for a nine month year. If you considerthat bubkes you must be smoking something illegal.

hi thinking virginia. or may i simply call you virginia? anyway, states already *do* take the lead. both govs cuomo and christie took the lead here with sandy and *then* formally requested aid from FEMA. i think Romney’s statement is a kind of neutral “states rights” argument that doesn’t hold much sway given the ability of the federal government to produce massive amounts of aid–as it should.

Andy as a Christian and a lifelong Democrat it bothers me that American liberal Jewish women would rather pay for 12-year-olds birth control (at $360.00 per year) and defend actions like Obama’s support of killing infants who are born alive (like he did in Illinois) then worry about Israel’s survival. The teachers unions have defended incompetent teachers and pedophiles at the expense of children. She talks about Jewish values and mouths words about ethics. What about the ethic not to slander. Nearly everything Romney is accused of part of a campaign of smear, slander and lies. Just recently several of my comrades in arms were murdered in Benghazi because the president wanted to keep up the fiction that the US was winning in the war against Islamic extremism. He made the decision not to intervene and then went to bed early. Now the truth is coming out, live with it.

CIA officers in Benghazi had been told to “stand down” when they wanted to deploy from their base at the annex to repel the attack on the consulate, about a mile away. The CIA officers requested military support when the annex came under fire later that night but that their request had been denied.

LtcHoward. As a Democrat and proud American, I deeply respect your right to your personal religious beliefs on abortion. As a Jew, I have a different perspective. Judaism defines life as beginning later than conception. So, there’s not much resolving those faith differences. But to suggest that the President supports “killing infants” is truly outlandish. As for your assessment of what happened in Benghazi, there is simply no credible evidence that the President “went to bed early.” He has admitted there were communications failures, has vowed to investigate, and I have no doubt improvements will come. The President recognizes with deep pain that lives were lost. And let’s not forget, he helped organize the over-throw of Qaddafi in the first place.

“But to suggest that the President supports “killing infants” is truly outlandish.”Andy, the legislation that Obama sponsored permits the killing of a child born alive after a failed abortion .This is public record. The times that a president leaves the public area and retires to the private area of the White House is also public record. “The president recognizes” makes it appear that you are either a spokesman of the president and authorized to speak for him or that you are a recipient, like so many of us are ,of White House talking points. Apparently, the president’s sincerity was not felt by the parents of the murdered State Department X special forces victim. They are in a better position to evaluate the president sincerity than either you or me.

Just to clarify, the character assassination I was referring to was in the article for the link Gary Morin posted above was entitled: Mitt Romney: The Hollow Man. To me the title alone indicates character assassination.

When the Sages spoke of “free and causeless hatred” as the main reason the Second Temple was destroyed, they weren’t kidding. The comments in this section are shameful and filled with such vitriol–it’s astounding what people will put in print. The American Jewish community found its main road to success in the public school system. Aren’t we the People of the Book? By what logic do we progress as a society while slashing education budgets? And by the way, Obama is more pro-Israel than George W. Bush. Facts are facts.

it’s not. Policy and fiscal debates are good for democracy. It’s the tone and statements made by many others here. There is nothing wrong with disagreement. But the demonization that goes with it and the irrational hatred toward the President is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.

I’m not suggesting he’s being demonized because people see through him. I think he’s being demonized by people who possess irrational hatred of him–because he’s black and because of the false claim that he is Muslim. The oxymoron is that Jews, who ought to know about irrational hatred, fear of the Other and xenophobia, are turning their hatred on the President. The lies being spread about him by right wing organizations, the paranoid theories, will go down in history. I am even more proud than ever to support President Obama–especially for the courage he has shown in not condemning these lies. If he would, he’d be branded by the right as “an angry black man.” His self-control and calm demeanor make him a great leader.

Andy, there are always the bigoted jews. The 30 percent of us who learned the wrong lessons from the holocaust who became insular, xenophobic, and racist out of fear. They will always be the minority, and we will always be the majority.

The reactions to this article are the reason why I don’t have much hope for a lot of people. Some just don’t get it.

I won’t even get into the alleged anti-semitism of Obama, which I feel is unwarranted and ignorant (let’s not get started on Romney; if you think he will support Israel when the chips are down, I truly wonder about you. Obama has been a victim of character assassination since he ran for public office). I just wonder how many people who have left comments here are teachers or who know teachers in the public schools. I was one; I obtained 2 certifications to do so. It is one of my many careers.

Frankly, if you haven’t taught a class of children in an urban area, you have no idea what you are up against. And the comment on the union destroying education in this country is just plain ignorant. With no tenure and no protection, any teacher is vulnerable to being let go for doing his/her job. Governor Christie saw to it that I lost mine when he reduced the education funding in New Jersey. I am obviously not a fan of him or his party.

In many cases, teachers spend far more money in their classrooms for materials their students need than what they bring home. Theirs has become a thankless job, as whatever they do and/or accomplish simply isn’t good enough in many circles. And now their benefits are being questioned and their pensions reduced. There are few things more important than developing the minds of children. Is is any wonder that teachers are retiring early if they can?

These comments have proven that many people don’t have their priorities straight. Jewish values? What about human values? I wonder how many people who scream the loudest about Israel actually live there.

After the election, a lot of Democrat Jews will be surprised to find out that Romney received , at least, 40% of the total Jewish vote. In Florida alone, Romney is a head from 3-5 points and Romney could not have such a lead without having a significant number of Jews living in Florida supporting him. Given Obama’s record for the past 4 years, it’s an easy decision to vote for Romney on Nov. 6.

Shocking that a leader of an extreme left wing organization doesn’t like Republican Mitt Romney’s Education proposals because they are not fair or just. Is fair and just the new metric for congressional spending and who gets to decide what it is? The problem with “fair and just” like all liberal orthodoxy depends on who is making these determinations.
But we should not let our quibbles over mere definitions supersede the biggest failing of the left when it comes to educational policy, there is no relevant constitutional provision that makes primary school education a Constitutional imperative. Isn’t this a matter that is wholly the province of local and State governance? Contrary to the fervent wishes of leftists everywhere, the 10th Amendment is not superfluous.

Let’s not cry for the 30,000 special ed teachers – they’ll find other things to do. Romney knows the benefits of education very well, having achieved degrees at both Harvard business and law schools. And he knows our education system is in shambles because TEACHERS’ UNIONS care more about protecting abusers and incompetents than the students they are supposed to protect.

Let’s stop providing services to people who simply want to collect those services without providing anything back to the country. Instead, if its important to you as a Jew (or for any other reason you might have) then give your OWN money to support these initiatives. But the fact is, the spending binge we are on for social services and educational programs that help a small minority of people is simply too large.

Lets look at our national debt and realize that Obama did nothing but grow it in the last 4 years. We have to make sacrifices to ensure this country continues. Obama will make none, and the debt will continue to grow.

Go ahead and keep voting like a lemming, believing you are doing the “right thing” for the world. In the meantime, our current President will do everything he can to ensure that our Jewish homeland is utterly destroyed. When it comes to Israel, a vote for Obama is another step towards destruction.

So, Ms. Weingarten, you are simply wrong. And hopefully next week the American public will be able to make things right again.

You mean leaving Bibi sitting in the WhiteHouse while O goes to dinner with his family? Or going on Letterman instead of sitting down with our greatest middle east ally while he is in town? Like supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? Like dragging feet on any firm action on Iran’s nuclear facilities that are in development for the sole purpose of Israel’s destruction? Like blaming Israel for keeping the Palestinians from the negotiating table, after 10 months of waiting for them to show? Like touring the entire Arab world to “apologize” while ignoring Israel? Like keeping our embassy in Tel Aviv? Like pushing for the nonexistent ’67 Borders?

If you call this “supportive” of Israel then you are completely delusional.

You can also read “The Mismeasure of man “ by Stephen Gould. “What has “Your country” done to me? My mother’s sister, her husband, two daughters went up in smoke because of Roosevelt closing the doors. Then a boy and girl were converted to Catholicism by the opportunity. My being a US citizen who will vote Republican this time. For 3 decades I voted Democrat and manned phones, knocked on doors to elect Democrats. My old party is now infested with anti- Semitism and headed by anti- Semite Obama. Does this make me a hater “of your country?”

OK, then give me a definition of an anti- Semite that doesn’t fit Obama. In my definition a non- anti- Semite would never, even for a minute associated with Wright. This is how come for the first time in 2008 I could not have voted for Obama and why I will vote to replace this anti- Semite Obama.

Reverend wright is at worst slightly anti semitic in that he used the term jew to describe zionists. That is not acceptable, but he apologized, and I have faith that as fellow minorities, black people do understand the common bonds we share, and I take him at his word that he is sorry.

But that is besides the point. Obama has NEVER said anything anti semitic, and you are advocating voting for the party of Nixon!

I’m not saying that Reverend Wright is in fact not anti semitic, I just have a higher tolerance from it from black people, because of how much misinformation has been deliberately spread to them about us.

The point is that just because an associate of the president may or may not be anti semitic doesn’t make him anti semitic. As for wright, I honestly don’t know much about him, but this is the only anti semitic thing I could find about him if you have other examples obviously that may change my view of him.

the record is clear. Is well-documented. I find the Jewish liberals are just not willing to read, to think, to observe. I am not anti-Semitic. I am not Jewish. However, I am exasperated that I, a lifelong Democrat, to see the truth and the Jewish liberals such as Alan Dershowitz will recognize the truth and say yes but, or yes but on the other hand and still endorse those that seek to destroy Israel remember Tony Mc Peak. Remember Rasheed Khalidi .

Where do I begin? Slightly anti- Semitic? Is it like slightly pregnant? Common bond we share? This must explain Obama’s volunteering for the million men march when multitudes cheered every anti- Semitic rant by Farrakhan or Wright and Farrakhan visiting their fellow anti- Semite, Khadafi in Libya. I am not voting for a party but to get rid of anti- Semite Obama.

A. being anti israel, while something I do not support in any way, is not inherently antisemitic, because there are legitimate complaints against israel, and

B.

You are extremely over exaggerating his relationship with Obama, and

C.

“Opponents of Republican candidateJohn McCain pointed out that he had served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI) during the 1990s which provided grants worth $500,000 to the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, which was co-founded by Khalidi, for the purpose of polling the views of the Palestinian people.[39]”

It is ridiculous that conservatives on this page aren’t even debating the points of this article, which are that Romney and Ryan are advocating for cuts in education, which is something that we don’t tend to like, and at the same time increasing spending in defense, which is already at absurdly high levels. Rather than punishing those who are already suffering, by cutting their education and other funding, we should simply ask more from those who can afford it.

This is not class warfare, class warfare is how the right wing has redefined the poor as these villainous moochers, and the rich as these noble benefactors of society. It’s even funnier how I have to remind them of what one of our religion’s most famous sons: JESUS TAPDANCING CHRIST had to say on the whole matter of rich people.

Something about a needle, and a camel, and how he wasn’t getting into heaven, no?

Higher marginal tax rates haven’t been shown historically to result in increased tax revenues. Translation: a higher marginal tax rate (goes by other names: “taxing the rich”, “asking the rich to pay their fair share”, etc.) does not increase tax revenues collected by the federal government. So your argument of “simply asking more of those who can afford it” is flawed. Interesting analysis related to this here: http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-70-tax-rates-wont-work

The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Murray Rothbard, Ed Crane and Charles Koch.[6] In July 1976, the name was changed to the Cato Institute.[6][7] According to the 2011 Global Go To Think Tank Index, Cato is the 6th most influential US based think tank, ranking 3rd in Economic Policy and 2nd in Social Policy.[8]

Not at all a credible source, they lost any claims to that a long time ago.

Actually, the article is a republication of a Wall Street Journal article. And perhaps it would be better if you actually read, evaluated and then reacted to the arguments and data in the article rather than maligning an organization and individuals. And I don’t see how climate change relates to tax policy either.

Correlation does not equal causation. And two data points is not conclusive. The cited analysis from the WSJ looks is more comprehensive. Other confounding factors in play based on your point: dot.com boom during Clinton much of it a mirage for fueling tax revenues, Iraq War spending under Bush impacting the deficit.

Correlation does not equal causation. And two data points is not conclusive. The cited analysis from the WSJ looks is more comprehensive. Other confounding factors in play based on your point: dot.com boom during Clinton much of it a mirage for fueling tax revenues, Iraq War spending under Bush impacting the deficit.

Um… no. Those are our values. We value justice, compassion, and repairing the world which in my mind immediately goes to climate change reform. You don’t get to decide what our culture’s values are, they are already our values.

Weingarten has long been a political manipulator whose object is to require “you” to pay the price for a Rolls Royce in exchange for a rusted out Chevy with a broken engine and 4 bad tires. She’s hurt a lot of children’s futures in the process.

Sovereign Jewish political history throughout the ages has always been about ‘centralised power’ from the Maccabees to the Pale of Settlement to the birth of Israel. It’s this ‘centralised power’ that kept Jewish societies together – often administered by (Jewish) regents or rabbis.

If (some) Jews here think Obama is a Socialist, then they must surely hate Israel which to them must seem like a pur sang Communist State. Conscription, Socialised Medicine, Strong Trade Unions, Labour Parties. I love how people think Romney’s conservatism somehow embodies Jewish values when the only Jewish State in the world is far to the left on many social issues than ANYTHING in the US and certainly the GOP. If Obama is a Socialist then Netanyahu is fucking Karl Marx. Jokers.

I shared the same view of Israel as being more socialistic until I read the “Israel Test” by George Gilder. It’s a very interesting perspective where Gilder argues that under Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel has become the world’s ascendant capitalist country – and that this is a good thing for freedom loving people everywhere. He argues that anti-semitism is really a hatred of capitalism and excellence. Worth a read for a unique perspective.

Right. Because for the past century, the people who have been saying that jews control the world have never used the terms like “jewish communists” or “jewish socialists” or anything like that. That’s never happened.

I am shocked at the amount of right-wing vitriol that has appeared in this discussion. It appears to be all the same lies and garbage that appear on reactionary blogs all over the Internet. America is not “out of money” or “broke”. We have a problem with priorities. China buys our Treasury bonds because they are a good investment; they are no fools. Attempting to “balance the budget” on the backs of the poor, elderly, and sick is simply immoral behavior. The sort of people who think morality is about sex and gay marriage (Christians, Jews, and others) are ignoring the words of our prophets, which featured the word “justice”.

Funny, a grossly overpaid, close to half a million, union hack like Weingarten whose union has singlehandedly destroyed New York public education and resisted efforts to remove and fire incompetent teachers, lecturing anybody on ‘ethics’ The only ‘ethics’ Weingarten and her crew have pursued are protecting her union members, no matter how incompetent or criminal their behavior, and feathering their own nests.

But keep yelling about muslims, because that is SURE to get the jewish vote. I mean we always respond to religious intolerance, it’s one of the big issues for us. It just won’t have the effect you think.

Jews are more against bigotry than they are afraid of muslims, sorry your fear mongering won’t work.

You’re the clueless one, my friend, as usual among the left. There may be ‘moderate’ people in Indonesia but the religious establishment, as in EVERY moslem country, is firmly in the hands of the Islamists. And the attitudes of the average Indonesian moslem towards Jews and Israel, as in EVERY moslem country, range from strong disapproval to outright Nazi-like hatred.Just a few days ago the gov’t arrested a group planning attacks against Western and Israeli consulates and business interests. The country is also the scene of a massive terror attack against a club favored by Westerners which killed hundreds of people. I suggest a trip to Bali where you can meet with members of the majority Hindu population, the ONLY truly moderate segment of the Indonesian population, and they can further widen your much needed education on the ‘moderate’ tendencies of moslem Indonesia.

Really umm it’s not. My roommate is an indonesian native, and I’ve talked to him about this. Their religious atmosphere is like ours: most people are christian, but only some assholes shove it down our throat.

In fact, it’s even less like that in Indonesia, because Muslims don’t believe in proselytizing so no one is trying to convert anyone.

So yeah, you have NO idea what the fuck you are talking about, and you are an incredibly bigoted asshole.

Are you even Jewish?

Or are you just a far right bigot, trying to co opt Israel into your agenda?

Are you kidding? Under Governor,Mitt Romney, Massachusetts had the number one school system in the country. The national education system has been an abject failure. We used to have the best education system in the world. Now are education system is no better than mediocre. We have a huge national bureaucracy and a powerful teachers union with a dumbed down curriculum that indoctrinates our children into a trickle down government system without teaching basic skills. We have an exorbitantly expensive college system passing out worthless degrees because we have no price mechanism to lower costs, offer degrees for worthless courses, and promotes class warfare, generational warfare, gender warfare and race warfare. So we end up with student debt of $1 Trillion and half of the graduates not being able to find work. Since when is it a Jewish value to support big government and big unions. They do a lousy job of providing help for the disadvantaged, the poor, the disabled or the young. But they do entrap us in a shared misery..

Are you kidding? Under Governor,Mitt Romney, Massachusetts had the number one school system in the country. The national education system has been an abject failure. We used to have the best education system in the world. Now are education system is no better than mediocre. We have a huge national bureaucracy and a powerful teachers union with a dumbed down curriculum that indoctrinates our children into a trickle down government system without teaching basic skills. We have an exorbitantly expensive college system passing out worthless degrees because we have no price mechanism to lower costs, offer degrees for worthless courses, and promotes class warfare, generational warfare, gender warfare and race warfare. So we end up with student debt of $1 Trillion and half of the graduates not being able to find work. Since when is it a Jewish value to support big government and big unions. They do a lousy job of providing help for the disadvantaged, the poor, the disabled or the young. But they do entrap us in a shared misery..

1. Randi Weingarten is a woman. Why did some of you assume she’s not? Weird.
2. Unless you are a multi-millionaire who is completely against women’s reproductive rights, why would you vote for Romney? You have not given us any reasons, except that you don’t like Obama.

I haven’t seen any of that from the Obummer administration. I also noticed that the article was written by a person who is affiliated with one of the most evil unions in the nation.
Mitt Romney comes from a group of people who are very generous in their daily life. Jews and Mormons are by nature very generous people. It is written in their DNA. Personal generosity can do more for Americans than all the money wasted by the government.

My bottom line. If I was giving my pension money, my future that I was depending on to live out my retirement. . . would I give it to Obama or Romney to invest for me, and make it grow? I want my money and the money of this country to be in the hands of someone who understands what it takes to make the hard decisions to be successful. That is certainly not Obama.

Romney’s policies contradict his own LDS Church’s beliefs. The LDS Church is the first openly SOCIALIST religion, and even today, is among the largest benefactors globally. The General Authorities of the Church do not teach most of what Romney preaches. However, they (almost) always stay out of politics, and don’t tell Mormon politicians what to do. Frankly, I’d love to see Romney, and Glenn Beck, excommunicated!

Question, is this comment board always bicker-y and nasty?

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